Sleeping Beauty

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Once upon a time, in a far away kingdom, lived a king and queen who brought a beautiful little daughter into the world who they named Erza. She was their most precious treasure and was endowed with a beauty and a grace which had no comparison. However, she was so authoritarian – and scary – that the King and the Queen decided to ask her fairy godmother for her help in order to make her less brutal and less severe...

"Wait... Do her own parents really want to change her personality? Isn't a fairy tale supposed to show the open-mindedness of the characters while embellishing things?" asked Gray, interrupting Mirajane's story. The young woman just ignored the ice mage's comment.

The good godmother then used her magic to soften the eighteen-year-old young woman during her sleep - the only moment when she was not on her guard. But when she pronounced the magic formula, she sneezed violently because of her pollen allergy, modifying the spell she was casting. Thus, instead of making the princess gentler, she made all the kingdom fall into a deep sleep. Panic-striken, the fairy ran away without saying a word to anyone...

"Seriously? What kind of fairy is she?" asked Natsu.

Days passed, turning into months, then into years. Eventually, after hundred years, a prince who was wandering in the surroundings passed near the castle (actually, he had been fired by his parents for he didn't want to marry princess Juvia). On his way, he came across some farmers who explained to him briefly why the castle was covered with brambles – that is to say because of a mistake in a formula - adding in passing that the fairy who was responsible for all that had ran away to the Bahamas...

"The Bahamas?! Isn't it supposed to be in a far away kingdom?" exclaimed Lucy, Gray and Happy.

… Prince Gray – because is name was Gray – then decided to squat in the castle (he had become homeless, remember). When he showed himself in front of the castle, the brambles moved away as if by magic, leaving the way clear to him. The prince being a bit idiot, entered without hesitating...

"Hey! It's that flame brain who always rushes in without thinking!" yelled Gray (the real one).

"Repeat that?!" exclaimed Natsu.

"What if you just shut up? I'd like to know the end of the story! Do you, Erza?" asked Lucy.

The young woman with scarlet hair nodded swiftly.

'She's really into it...' Everybody thought.

"Calm down. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental," said Mirajane.

Anyway, the prince – who was not an idiot – entered – while hesitating – into the castle. He started wandering into the dwelling, stepping over the bodies of the persons who were asleep on the floor. When he arrived in the throne room, he pushed aside the king and queen on the floor and sat on the throne. While he was scanning the room, he stayed on the sovereigns. Seeing their appearance, he gave them the ages of about forty, nay fifty years old, which then meant that they might have children of around his age, and especially a princess. He then decided to continue his castle's exploration, on a quest to find a beautiful princess. If he could bring her to his parents, he would be able to continue living in their castle, which was better than living with people who were slumped on the floor, without anyone to serve him. Prince Gray finally arrived in the room of the beautiful princess Erza. The latter was asleep on her bed. She was calm, a rose in her hands...

"A rose in her hands? And can we know where it came from?"

"It's a fairy tale, Gray..." said the celestial mage.

The prince was enthralled by her beauty and couldn't help but have salacious thoughts...

"Cana! Let Mira tell the story!"

He then thought back at what one of the old farmers had told him. Makarov, if he remembered well...

- Only a kiss from a prince will be able to wake the princess up...

"What? Wasn't he supposed to not know that there was a princess?"

.. Because the prince had a limited memory and had totally forgotten what the old man had told him until he remembered it.

The prince then went forward toward the beautiful Erza, brushed off one of her scarlet locks and leaned over her...

"But wait... He is one hundred years younger than her! All this is not very clean!"

"A young man who loves old women... I should have suspected that Gray had this kind of taste," said Cana while drinking a swallow of sake.

"I don't!" exclaimed the young man.

Gray-sama then realised that he loved princess Juvia and that he wanted to marry her and have plenty of children with her. Oh Gray-sama, another child again? If you insist...

A silence set up in the guild...

As for the water mage, she was shaking her head between her hands, from left to right, her face all red.

But the beautiful Juvia got bored of that idiot and realised that she had always preferred the more or less brother of the prince...

"Shut up Lyon!" exclaimed Gray.

Mirajane sighed.

"So, where was I?"

So, prince Gray leaned over the princess and put his lips on hers. Erza slowly opened her eyes and discovered her charming prince who was looking at her, smiling.

In the end, he might fall in love with her...

"Who are you?" she said with a threatening voice while getting out a sword from under her dress.

"I'm the prince who made you leave this interminable sleep..."

"Oh, in that case, everything is alright,"

They kissed passionately and went back to the castle of prince Gray. They lived happily ever after. The end.

"What?! Is that all?!" exclaimed the audience.

"Would you have preferred if I developed more the part in which you succumb to the charm of each other?" Mirajane asked Gray, smirking.

"I thought that any resemblance to actual persons was purely coincidental?"

"Did I say that?" the young woman asked with an innocent smile.

"Juvia does not like this tale..."

"What a great imagination... But purely fictional," said Gray.

"Is it? Then, why are you blushing?" Cana and Mirajane asked.

"I'm just hot!"

He cast a glance at Erza to see her reaction to Mirajane's story. She was in a total wonderment and her eyes were sparkling like a little girl's.

"It's so beautiful..." said she, wiping a tear because she was very moved.

'She was really into it...'

"Well, it doesn't matter..." he said, scratching the back of his head before leaving the guild, a smile across his lips.

Mirajane and Cana could laugh at him as much as they wanted, he didn't care, because he had never seen Erza smiling like that and had been able to discover a new side of hers.